by J. Orlin Grabbe

Ross Perot made many of his millions by selling computer services
to the government. In 1969 his company EDS contracted with the California
State Physicians Service, the state medicaid processing agent, to take over
some of their computer processing responsibilities.

The contract needed the approval of Earl Brian, a combat physician
who served in a unit providing air support for Operation Phoenix and who then
became health and welfare secretary in the cabinet of California Governor
Ronald Reagan, in which capacity Brian later authored a couple of papers
(Position paper on Department of Health reorganization and related health
boards and commissions, Sacramento, 1973; California's Med-Cal copayment
experiment, with Stephen F. Gibbons, Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1974).

After leaving this post to run for the Senate against Alan Cranston,
and losing, Brian became President of a high-tech company called Xonics,
which was accused by the SEC of fraud and manipulating the price of its
stock. Brian left Xonics in October 1977 without being charged with any
wrongdoing, or--unlike four other Xonics officers--being required to sign
an SEC consent decree. A number of former Xonics officers went on to
form a company called Hadron.

In 1980 Brian formed a company called Biotech Capital Corp (renamed
Infotechnology in 1987), one of whose investors was Ed Meese's wife Ursula,
who got a loan to buy Biotech stock from Meese advisor Edwin Thomas. Brian
also acquired control of a Canadian company called Clinical Sciences.

Brian at some point worked on projects with Michael Riconosciuto and
Robert Booth Nichols at the Cabazon Indian Reservation, projects administered
"jointly" by the Wackenhut Corporation. On September 10, 1981, for example,
Brian was seen by the Riverside Sheriff's Department at a weapons
demonstration at Lake Cauchilla gun range at Indio, CA.

After the Reagan administration took office, Brian was given a
White House post related to health-care issues under Ed Meese. Brian is
alleged to have said to Meese, "I'm going to be the Ross Perot of the Reagan
administration, and you can be the Earl Brian." If this conversation actually
took place, it apparently meant that Brian intended to make money by selling
software to the U.S. government--purchases which Ed Meese would be in a
position to approve.

One of the ways Brian apparently fulfilled this dream was by
marketing the PROMIS software, created and modified by contract between
the U.S. Department of Justice and Inslaw, Inc.--a Washington, D.C.
based software firm. At the time, Brian's company Biotech Capital Corp
(later renamed Infotechnology) controlled Hadron, which attempted a buyout
of Inslaw. When Brian was not able to obtain property rights to the software
this way, Inslaw was driven into bankruptcy and the software stolen by
"trickery, deceit, and fraud", according to federal bankruptcy Judge George
Bason.

Brian had perhaps seen the potential for intelligence agency use
of this type of software from his days in Vietnam in connection with
Operation Phoenix. Operation Phoenix (run by the CIA's William Colby) used
computers to track political enemies, many of which were targeted for
assassination.

At first Brian marketed the PROMIS software to intelligence
organizations, including Israel and Iraq (the latter deal facilitated by arms
dealer Carlos Cardoen). In February 1983 Brian sent Rafi Eitan over to the
Inslaw offices for a demonstration of the PROMIS software. Rafi Eitan was to
later head up LAKAM, Israel's scientific and technological espionage agency
which oversaw the Jonathan Pollard spying operation.

Later, in Brazil, Brian acquired the nickname "Cash", allegedly based on
a perception of his mercenary approach to life. In offering to sell the
software to the Brazilian government, Brian wasn't entirely freelancing.
During an official meeting Brian placed a phone call to the U.S. to obtain
the approval of Ed Meese. More information on the Brazilian sale may be found
in a redacted part of the Bua report. An affidavit on the matter was even
signed by Figueiredo, the Brazilian president.

Judge Bua in his report ignored Justice Department complicity in the
theft of the PROMIS software and accepted Brian's testimony at face value,
saying he found him a trustworthy fellow. Brian is now under indictment in
California, while the allegedly corrupt Judge Bua is plea bargaining with
prosecutors.

The California indictment of Earl W. Brian was announced in September
1995. The indictment concerns ten of millions of dollars of fraudulent lease
transactions, while Earl Brian was Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive
Officer of three separate companies: Infotechology, Financial News Network
(FNN), and United Press International (UPI).

The indictment claims that Brian and his co-conspirators engaged in
some trick financing (worthy of Billy Sol Estes). In 1988 FNN (now CNBC)
was losing money, so to hide that fact from its lending banks and from the
investing public, Brian generated some extra "income" through false charges.

First FNN charged UPI $29 million to use a technology called the
"vertical blanking interval". Next FNN charged another Infotechnology-
related company called Institutional Research Network (IRN) millions of
dollars (above actual costs) for a news product called FNN:PRO. Payments
for these charges topped up FNN's income nicely.

But since neither UPI nor IRN had money to pay for these charges,
the money had to come from somewhere else. The money came from leasing
and finance companies, who bought broadcast and communications equipment
from two affiliates of FNN, Telecommunications Industries and Micro Research
Industries. (The equipment either did not exist or was sold to more than one
leasing company at the same time, or was previously sold to customers of the
FNN subsidiary Data Broadcasting Company.) The purchase price of the non-
existent equipment was paid to FNN, who then made lease payments to the
leasing and finance companies.

The indictment says that Brian also siphoned off $300,000 of the
lease money to himself, by submitting a "bill" to FNN from another company
he controlled, called Alton, Inc.

If you steal from a thief, can he holler 'Cop!'? The indictment
says one of the co-conspirators, a fellow named Bolen, caused a fraudulent
$1 million to be paid to the offshore bank account of a company called
Centerpoint, Inc., as a payment to himself.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Earl Brian indictment is
the date: June 1994. The indictment was sat on for more than a year,
while an incredibly corrupt Justice Department prepared its own rebuttal to
Inslaw's Rebuttal to the Bua Report.

The Justice Department is never in any rush when it's preoccupied
with covering up its own crimes.